Royal Netherlands Air Force

The Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF) is the air force of the Netherlands, founded on 27 March 1953. The Army Aviation Group of the Royal Netherlands Army was founded in July 1913, and the aviation group almost dissolved during the Interwar period; the group had only 176 aircraft in August 1939, just before the start of World War II. In May 1940, during the German invasion of the Netherlands, the Dutch Air Force was taken out within five days, and 95% of Dutch pilots were lost to the German Luftwaffe. In 1941, the Dutch military flying school was set up in Jackson, Mississippi in the United States, and Dutch military aircrews were trained there. In 1942, the Dutch military air service in the Dutch East Indies was obliterated by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service, but some squadrons fled to Sri Lanka in March 1942. A joint Dutch-Australian air unit was established in Canberra, assisting in the recapture of ioccupied New Guinea. In 1953, the RNLAF became independent from the army, and it took part in Operation Deliberate Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1995 and Operation Allied Force in Kosovo in 1999, with both operations being carried out alongside other NATO air forces. In 2017, the RNLAF had 8,030 personnel, 175 aircraft, and 88 UAVs.